Hahira, Georgia, October 30, 2025 — Join us this Saturday, November 1, 2025, on an approximately 3 mile or 4 hour hike on the Dead River and the dry Alapaha River bed, led by Practicing Geologist Dennis James Price of Hamilton County, Florida.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Sink
Hike with a Geologist to a Spring, the Dead River Sink, and the Dry Alapaha River 2025-11-01
Hahira, Georgia, October 30, 2025 — Join us this Saturday, November 1, 2025, on an approximately 3 mile or 4 hour hike on the Dead River and the dry Alapaha River bed, led by Practicing Geologist Dennis James Price of Hamilton County, Florida.
We will meet at 9:30 AM at Jennings Bluff Cemetery. On a short stop there, we will climb down a steep bank to explore a spring. Then we will drive into public lands to the Dead River Sink where we will hike out to the Alapaha River and hike the river bed.
From Jennings, Florida, go south on US 41 approximately 2.25 miles and turn left onto NW 25th Lane, which dead ends at the Jennings Bluff Cemetery on the Alapaha River. GPS: 30.56693, -83.035297
This area has recently been designated a State of Florida Geological Site.
Much of the year, the Alapaha River is dry for the last eighteen miles from Jennings Bluff to the Suwannee River, because its water flows into the Dead River and down into the Dead River Sink. On June 22, 2016, several Florida agencies put fluorescent green dye into the Dead River Sink. The dye came back up four days later in the Alapaha River Rise, and eight days later in Holton Creek Rise, both off of the Suwannee River.
Bring sturdy boots or shoes, clothes for woods with stickers, water, and snacks.
Also Continue reading
Hike to Dead River Sink, Alapaha River, Jennings Bluff 2025-11-01
Update 2025-10-30: Press release, Hike with a Geologist to a Spring, the Dead River Sink, and the Dry Alapaha River 2025-11-01.
Join us on an approximately 3 mile or 4 hour hike on the Dead River and the dry Alapaha River bed.
Initial meetup at Jennings Bluff Cemetery. Short stop there where we will climb down a steep bank to explore a spring. Then a drive into public lands to Dead River Sink where we will hike out to the Alapaha River and hike the river bed, led by Practicing Geologist Dennis James Price.
This area has recently been designated a State of Florida Geological Site.
When: Gather 9:30 AM, launch 9:30 AM, end 1 PM, Saturday, November 1, 2025
Put In: Jennings Bluff Cemetery. On US 41 go approximately 2.25 miles south from center of Jennings and turn left onto NW 25th Lane, which dead ends at the cemetery on the Alapaha River.
GPS: 30.56693, -83.035297
Hike to Dead River Sink, Alapaha River, Jennings Bluff, with Practicing Geologist Dennis Price 2025-11-01
Live Oak Sinkhole 2025-08-25
A sinkhole opened in U.S. 90 in the middle of Live Oak, Florida, yesterday. FDOT says it’s fixed since yesterday evening.
But chronic overpumping of groundwater produces such cavities, and increasintly big rains wash them open.
Live Oak Sinkhole, U.S. 90, 2025-08-25, Between Dowling Ave. and Union Ave.
Live Oak Police Department yesterday reported with a video of the sinkhole opening: Continue reading
Ask Alachua City Commission to investigate resignations of planners 2025-06-10
If you care about the Floridan Aquifer, from which we all drink, or underground caves, or surface creeks, or the Santa Fe River, or government transparency, please go to the Alachua City Commission meeting tonight, 6 PM, Monday, June 9, 2025.
That’s at James A. Lewis City Commission Chambers, 15100 NW 142 Terrace, Alachua, FL 32615.
Or call or write them:
https://www.cityofalachua.com/government/city-commission/meet-the-commissioners
Ask Alachua City Commission to investigate resignations 2025-06-09 of planners and City Manager, Tara Forest & Mill Creek Sink
Thanks to Vickie Bashor for this cogent explanation:
3 planners with over 50 years experience at the City of Alachua resigned earlier this year within a 2-week period. One of the planners, Justin Tabor, sent an open letter to the Alachua City Commission alleging Continue reading
How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar, by Dennis J. Price, P.G., 2025-06-19
Dennis Price, P.G., of Hamilton County, Florida, says, “I plan on going through the history of surface and ground water in the flatwoods in south Georgia and north Florida in the Suwannee River Basin. Historic water levels and how we have changed these levels. Changes beginning with forestry then farming, and population growth. Ideas for correcting the problems.”
This applies to the Floridan Aquifer proper and the other aquifers above it, all below the Suwannee, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers, the Okefenokee Swamp, and their tributaries.
When: 12-1 PM, Thursday, June 19, 2025
Put In: Register to join with zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/FdxNg0QeSB-ngQLGUaIWKw
WWALS Board Member Janet Martin will give a brief introduction.
Questions and answers will be at the end.
How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar 2025-06-19
Waterkeeper Alliance advocates EPA and USACE restore longstanding protections for the nation’s waters 2025-04-23
Suwannee Riverkeeper, among 64 U.S. Waterkeepers, joined Waterkeeper Alliance and Environmental Integrity Project in asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to maintain and restore longstanding protections for the nation’s waters.
Waterkeeper Alliance advocates EPA and USACE restore longstanding protections for the nation’s waters 2025-04-23
Most of this long comment letter is applicable to the Suwannee River Basin. For example, related to the ongoing Georgia attempts to define which rivers and creeks are navigable: “lUnder the agencies’ Pre-2015 Regulatory Definition, all tributaries to traditionally navigable waters, interstate waters, impoundments, and ‘other waters’ are categorically defined as ‘waters of the United States.’” For example, see Valdosta sewage into Sugar Creek and Quitman sewage and cattle manure into Okapilco Creek, both into the Withlacoochee River in Georgia, upstream from Florida and the Suwannee River.
The comment doesn’t mention the Floridan Aquifer, but there are mentions of “Large numbers of rivers and streams… that briefly flow subsurface and then reemerge as surface waters.” and river-connected “subsurface flows and springs” elsewhere. Subsurface flows are important in the Suwannee River Basin and the Floridan Aquifer.
The Florida Basin Managment Action Plans (BMAPs) supposedly intend to reduce by 85-95% the leaching of fertilizer nitrates through the soil and subsurface limestone into springs and rivers, causing algae blooms and crowding out native vegetation, to the detriment of manatees and other wildlife.
See also the Dead River Sink where the Alapaha River goes underground and comes back up in the Alapaha River Rise on the Suwannee River. Continue reading
River water and groundwater interchange interacts with drinking water treatment 2025-03-26
We all drink with straws from the groundwater here in the U.S. southeast coastal plain.
River water and groundwater interchange interacts with drinking water treatment in Georgia and Florida
So surface water interchange with groundwater produces problems for city and county drinking water treatment, and for E. coli contamination of private water wells. Continue reading
Pictures: Sasser Landing Cleanup, Alapaha River 2024-07-13
It was fun, the Sasser Landing Cleanup on the Alapaha River 2024-07-13. We also went to Jannings Bluff Landing and the Dead River Sink, all by land.
Sasser Landing Cleanup, Alapaha River 2024-07-13, Jennings Bluff, Dead River Sink
Thanks to Dennis J. Price for leading this expedition in Hamilton County, Florida.
For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS outings web page, https://wwals.net/outings/. WWALS members also get an upcoming list in the Tannin Times newsletter. Continue reading
Sasser Landing Alapaha River Cleanup, 2024-07-13
Update 2025-01-18: Pictures: Sasser Landing Cleanup, Alapaha River 2024-07-13.
A river cleanup on land, at Sasser Landing, Jannings Bluff Landing, and the Dead River Sink parking lot.
When: 9 AM, Saturday, July 13, 2024
Put In: Sasser Landing, From Jennings, Hamilton County, FL, travel east on CR 150; cross the Alapaha River; turn left onto NW 72 Court and follow to river, in Hamilton County, FLorida.
On-land Cleanup, Sasser Landing, Jennings Bluff, Dead River Sink, Alapaha River, Hamilton County, FL

![[Hike with a Geologist to a Spring, the Dead River Sink, and the Dry Alapaha River, November 1, 2025]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-11-01--hike-dead-river-sink-pr/fbmany.jpg)